New Delhi 23 November : .The Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance reported that the United States has been added to a list “backsliding democracies”.
This was a first for The Washington Post, who described themselves as the leader of the Free World. The report Global State of Democracy 2021 by International IDEA stated that the United States was the last bastion of global democracy.
Washington Post reports that the study, which looked at trends between 2020 and 2021, revealed that nearly 25% of the world’s population lives in democracies in decline.This is defined by International IDEA as countries experiencing a slow decline in their democracy.
The report concluded that the world is increasingly authoritarian, as dictatorships and non-democratic governments become more brazen in their oppression.Many democratic governments are suffering from backsliding because they adopt their strategies of restricting freedom of speech and weakening rule of law.This situation is exacerbated with what could become a “new normal” of Covid-19 restrictions.The report stated that the ratio of countries moving towards authoritarianism to those moving towards democracy is three-to-one.
International IDEA classifies countries as authoritarian (which it regards to be non-democratic), democratic (including those with backsliding), and “hybrid.” The analysis is based on the 50-year history of democracy indicators in around 160 countries.
According to the report, some of the most alarming democratic slippages occurred in countries such as India and Brazil.Washing Post also reported on “concerning democracies” in America and the three European Union member countries: Hungary, Poland, and Slovenia.
san/skp/ #added #Delhi
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